OREANDA-NEWS. October 27, 2009. President Alexander Lukashenko toured the Kamennaya Gorka residential area in Minsk to look at the progress with the development of the area and get briefed on the general situation and prospects of residential construction in Minsk, reported the Official website president.gov.by.

The Kamennaya Gorka residential area was designed in 2005. This area is located in close vicinity of Minsk’s belt road, in the western part of town. According to the general development plan, a total of 1.78 million square metres of residential housing are due to be built in this area. In addition, the necessary social infrastructure will be provided, including schools, kindergartens, shops, public health facilities, sports grounds, and other infrastructure. The construction of residential houses is due to be completed by 2012, and the social infrastructure by 2014. This area will be home to over 77,000 residents.

As of now, 21 houses have been commissioned; 290,000 square metres of housing will be commissioned by the end of this year. The average price of one square metre in Kamennaya Gorka is Br1.6 million.

Over the past five years, the volume of residential construction in Minsk has doubled. But the number of people in need of housing is still fairly big.

According to the President, special attention should be paid to promoting the growth of Minsk’s satellite towns in order to ‘unload’ the capital. The President said, it also makes sense to restrict the flow of citizens coming to the Belarusian capital for permanent residence. ‘You should not have all the people gather in the centre,’ he said. ‘Nobody is going to close Minsk, but to confine the inflow of people is a necessity, however unpopular this may be. Most Minsk residents support this decision.’

But in order to encourage people to settle down in these town satellites, there is a need for creating jobs there, as well as all the necessary conditions for life and recreation, the President said.